Hey folks! It's been a long time since I've given an update on new development, so here goes.

Starting in the fall of 2014 I began working on the next generation of the game. My goals: Support for higher resolutions Much smoother water animation A wide assortment of locations Backward compatibility so people can continue to use existing outings Proper support for current versions of Windows A single code base supporting multiple platforms: Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS Distribution through official app stores Support for both mouse, keyboard and touch screen devices

So far I've done a lot of travel and photography, and a lot of video/photo editing. I thought I might release the new version this winter, but I've decided I need at least one more photo shoot to round out the content. To date I've shot 47 outings in 13 states for the new version, but all in central and eastern time zones. I wasn't able to fit in a trip out west last year, and I can't bring myself to accept a total lack of western waters. This year I'll be spending a week or two out west shooting some of those to round out the content. In the fall I'll finish the coding and content work.

To produce sites for My new shooting technique involves taking HD video (1080p) and stills (18 megapixels) at each site. Later I make a seamless 6 frame animation loop from the video, and then overlay the land from a still photo. That produces much smoother flowing water from the video, and much sharper detail in the non-moving parts from the still. While combining those parts I also adjust the light levels of the water and land portions separately, which improves the scenes aesthetically, and avoids having excessively bright or dark water.

I started with a photo shoot in the northeastern states,shooting a couple dozen waters in 8 states. Last spring I shot another 7 waters in Arkansas and Missouri, and last summer and fall I shot a number in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa. I haven't locked down my plans for this summer, but I have a long list of locations in mind.

Generally I'm shooting 8 to 20 sites per outing. I've shot something like 600 sites so far. I've done most of the photo/video editing for those sites, producing the 6 animation frames for each site. That's over 3,000 site frames I've edited so far, including some I'm redoing where there's room for improvement. I'll reject some of the sites after I see them all in the game at full resolution to trim the content down to high quality sites. After that I'll do the site mapping (depth and current) and configure the fish and food populations.

Eventually I'll probably release both desktop and mobile editions, with the desktop versions including the highest resolution content (1920 x 1080 pixels) and a larger quantity of sites. The mobile version will probably use a slightly reduced resolution and a smaller set of sites just to keep the app size down. The full resolution animation frames will amount to 7 or 8 GB once I add the western waters. I may apply a little higher compression to bring that down, and with weeding out the poorer sites, it may get down to a total of 4 or 5 GB for the desktop version. That's close to 10 times the size of the third edition.

In the meantime I'm exploring releasing the current mobile version (Fly Fishing Simulator) on the Windows Store. It's designed for mobile devices, so the resolution is slightly lower than the current Windows version, but that would provide a version that's fully compatible with Windows 8 and 10, for computers and mobile devices. It would be the same as the version now on the Play Store, iTunes Store and Amazon App Store, with the addition of support for keyboard and mouse input for non-touchscreen devices.

That about sums things up for now... Now I should get back to work. =)

Hi Paul,My Hat Goes off to you on the vast amount of work you have so far completed on what is a Massive Build,This is not an update but a complete overhaul and new product,I wish you all the success and rewards you will so richly deserve when this is finished.You as always have my undying support and know what you will produce at the end will only cementin our (members) minds and hearts that this game is unequalled on the planet.Highest Regards Martin aka Scottish Warrior.

WOW! That is fantastic news for all the supporters and fans of the RWFF flyfishing simulator. Like Martin said, my hat is off to you for doing such a fantastic job with the new version of RWFF and I can't wait to see it. I will be happy to help in anyway I can and if you need someone to do some beta testing please let me know.

Yes, I would agree with you that a good flyfishing simulator will not be complete without some good Western trout streams and rivers. I hope you will have a chance to visit Montana this Summer and I will contact my good friend John Bailey in Livingston, Montana. I am sure John will be happy to help you in anyway he can with site locations, picture shooting (and fishing) in this prime Yellowstone River fishing area. Plenty of great Blue Ribbon trout streams and world renown Spring Creeks there, all within a 50 miles radius from Livinston, Montana.

I just checked in and saw this - awesome, awesome news! I will definitely be buying a copy (and probably a few more as gifts).I'm looking forward to seeing Fly Fishing Simulator in the Windows Store. Have you considered seeing how Microsoft's Project Centennial could get RWFF (and VRSF and IFD) into the Store, as well? It'd be nice if the new version could be worked up as a Universal Windows App - then we'd all get to see it not only on our PCs, but also on XBox Ones and even, eventually, Hololens (can you imagine...?). And, that'd also allow Windows 10 Mobile Peasants, like me, to put it on our phones (I don't care about the size - my 32 Gig MicroSD card should handle it)!Whatever happens, please, bring RWFF's force feedback over to the new version - I have a SideWinder that loves that sim!

I suppose I should have announced this - Fly Fishing Simulator, the mobile version previously available for Android and iOS is actually on the Windows Store now. It's a Windows RT (runtime) version and should play fine on Windows 8 and 10 computers and tablets, but I'm not sure about the Windows phones. I ported this as a first test of the Windows support in the game development system I used to make the mobile version. It's capable of exporting a version targeting Windows phones, but I haven't tried that.

Note that since this version was designed for phones, the scene graphics are compressed quite a bit more than the original Windows version to keep the app size down, so while it looks nice on a phone, the scenery looks less than gorgeous on a 24 inch monitor. The next edition will have far sharper graphics, of course. =)